I must thank my gods for true Romanian friends, for they have lessons from times of Ceaușescu, and before and after. Interesting sidenote the modern state of Romania abolished Capital punishment in 1990, after the trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu in December 1989.
That timings must have hurt. This seems a tad macabre for a blog series on raising funds and building a platform so for now we look at the organizational disorder, the uncertainties, and situation of the product that is of great frustration, especially to myself.
“Begin by descending,” St. Augustine wrote, more than a millennium ago. “You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” A good builder would always pay the foundation person more money than you’d ever imagine paying them, because you will never fix a foundation.
And then you look at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Fix this and you would destroy their economy
In India, there is Leaning Temple of Huma.
It is in Odisha, and regretfully or thankfully, largely ignored by the people. Best case scenario would be encroachments by commercial interests.
But unlike the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, it exists.
Ibn Battuta visited the Great Mosque of al-Nuri, in Mosul, he wrote that its curving minaret was “splendid,” and affectionately referred to it as al-Hadba, or “the hunchback.”
The mosque was destroyed in 2017, during the Battle of Mosul. UNESCO later surveyed locals about restoring it, and ninety-four per cent of respondents said that they wanted the minaret rebuilt “exactly as it was.”
So, what is the point? Flowed foundations are not always bad.
Unless it is the Leaning Tower of New York” the residential skyscraper in the Financial District of Manhattan, available as a billboard for advertisement.
More on that here,
What They Seek
A well-meaning soul shared this with me. https://x.com/jordihays/status/1916974275841646957
This is a good check list to follow, for my next round. I wanted to make a joke about all the beautiful people on social media and my total lack of presence, but I have graver matters to attend.
Mo Money Mo Problems
This section is dedicated to Diddy, who is probably going to spend rest of his life behind bars; unless money buys justice. That it sort of does. Justice is expensive. That is one reason why there is so little of it and only those with enough money and influence can afford it.
All the money in the world is no substitute for hard work and ingenuity.
– Alfalfa, The Little Rascals
But can money build my product?
I tried with spending a little bit more and that backfired rather quickly. We run a very tight operation at Machine Dalal and can stretch a dollar like no one else. Primarily because of our tech experience, but it has its pitfalls.
If you ask me, a huge chunk got wasted due to my decisions. Although I self-corrected the course within three months, I am worse off that before. The growth has stalled, the product remains woefully behind schedule. Mistakes were made in probably all departments. It was chaotic. I felt like a blind man at an orgy, I had to feel my way around at every stage of the implementation.
But since the buck stops here, there is no one else to be blamed but me. And now I have to unscrew what I had screwed, but also find new nails, hammers and wood to construct.
These metaphors, uff!
And the Delays?
A Thousand Apologies
“A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad” is a quote often attributed to Miyamoto, and I don’t care if he said it or not, but I would rather be late than dead.
There are moments when I get despondent, dismayed and so low on spirits that I unwittingly place my knees on the floor, but advertently I get up, and go about. The best way out is always through, so I will rephrase the immortal words of Johnnie Walker, and ‘Keep Walking.’
Is it all bad news?
No.
Our growth slowed down. But we keep on growing.
We onboarded over 30 new machine manufacturers.
Partnered with two financial institutions.
Most importantly our Search has gotten better. Now it shows actual results to queries. Search is going to be the mainstay of our product and will probably make it easier for our users to look for equipment, machinery, accessories, services, parts or loans.
We are live in Arabic as well as Spanish. I am hoping before the end of this quarter, we would German, French and Portuguese, followed by Russian and Italian. I could be wrong about the sequence though.
They say perfection is a lot of little things done right. I personally am not trying to build a perfect product but a formidable serious business platform. I think these things do not happen overnight, success neither has a timeline nor a deadline, there is no clock on this thing but liquidity is important and behind all the words, and these private soirees of mine, I am cognizant of the fact that the only metrics that matter is revenue, and we are chasing that.
‘It’s a Process.’